EPG information and schedule

I'd like to know how TV companies and EPG companies work together to get information onto an EPG system. I've heard different ideas which conflict.

On one hand I've heard it works like this:
- TV Station has a Playout System which is used to schedule and control what is aired.
- The TV Station gets people to enter its own metadata (e.g description, time of airing) into the Playout System.
- This playout system is automatically hooked up with and synched with a variety of third party EPG devices (such as from Sky, Gemstar etc)
- These devices send the EPG metadata out. (Is it to a centrlized location with each company or is it straight along the airwaves, or is it both?)


On the other hand I've heard its like this:
- A TV company writes down its own schedule and sends it to an EPG company (e.g Tribune or Gemstar).
- These companies then put this information into the system and add their own descriptions.
- This often results in a lot of people in an office at the EPG company, each with their own fax machine, PC, and printer -- and piles and piles of paper and sticky notes. Everyone is on the phone with TV stations, channel reps, networks, customers and service operators constantly, to make sure they get all the data for the EPG.


An anyone enlighten me to how it actually works?

I think it's the company themselves that control their own EPG. Probably because when a programme overruns they keep the programme up as "Now" until it finishes. I doubt there's a company who spend all day focusing on one transmission...

It's more the first scenario, but of course it varies from channel to channel.

Most channels are just a stack of pre-recorded programmes played out one after the other and scheduled well in advance - their schedules and therefore EPG data is available a long time in advance. Some will use a third party but it is sent to the platform involved (cable, DTT, Sky) and not direct with the channel. AFAIK normally but it the EPG isn't connected to the playout system - most channels it changes at the scheduled time, not when the programme is on.

With the 'reactive' channels like BBC1 it's a little more complex. There is someone available to edit the EPG data and it is also connected to the playout auotmation so that the programme 'on now' only changes when it actually is being broadcast. In the case of the BBC which has many diffrent services all their EPG data for radio and TV is on a central system and sent to whereever it is needed - DAB, DTT, Cable, Sky, internet

The EPGs for each platform are centralised, they have to be otherwise you couldn't - for example - watch BBC1 and look at the now and next for Discovery. In the case of Sky just the now and next is sent out on every transponder, the entire EPG is sent on a seperate frequency (hence why you can't listen to the audio of your channel while browsing the tv guide)

There's no way that everything would be done with faxes, bits of paper and phone calls etc. Everything is computerised including the compilation of the schedules from which the EPG data is derived.

Thanks for the info!

But what about the descriptions for individual TV programs - where does that come from?

The broadcaster writes them

So just to confirm - all the descriptions we see on all EPGs are from the broadcaster - are there any exceptions? (I know IceTV must be one).

This seems very similar to another recent thread on the site, or is it just me?

Or for smaller channels the episode synopsis (as supplied by the production company) is used as opposed to a physical being writing new ones.